About William L.
William L. Bretschneider has worked at the intersection of business and law for more than three decades. He built a career that moves between in-house legal roles and private practice. The through-line is steady: helping companies manage legal and operational challenges.
Bretschneider earned his J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1989 after completing a B.A. in economics at the University of the Pacific in 1984. Those years set the technical foundation for work that would later range from corporate counsel positions to advisory roles for smaller enterprises.
His early recorded work in private practice includes a stint at Hoge Fenton Jones & Appel in 1995. By 2000 he had moved into senior corporate counsel work at Marimba, Inc., a position that continued after Marimba’s acquisition by BMC Software. He returned to a corporate counsel title in 2007 as Vice President of Affiliate Services and corporate counsel at Muzak, where legal responsibilities intersected with corporate operations and partnerships.
In 2012 Bretschneider became principal of Boutique Profits, an advisory role that reflected a shift toward consulting and business development. That private practice angle continued in 2015 when he joined Silicon Valley Law Group as a lawyer. The same year he also took on an academic role, serving as an adjunct lecturer at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, teaching business students from a practitioner’s perspective.
His career record shows repeated engagement with corporate and transactional matters. He has handled contractual negotiations, internal corporate counsel duties and issues tied to affiliate and partner arrangements. He is admitted to practice in California and is also authorized to appear before the United States District Courts for the Northern, Central and Southern Districts of California. He maintains membership in The State Bar of California.
Colleagues describe him as practical and business-minded; clients have turned to him for steady legal advice tied to commercial decisions. He splits his time between counseling companies on legal risk and helping them align legal strategy with business goals. He is currently of counsel at Silicon Valley Law Group and practices corporate and business law, advising clients on transactional and operational matters.
